These folks are creative and ironic, and the government can ultimately not control what is going on in their heads.
AI WEIWEII spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.
More Ai Weiwei Quotes
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It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that. There are crises and emergencies all the time, we might not even be aware of some. But I am afraid we’ll have to wait and observe precisely what the government is up to.
AI WEIWEI -
It became like a symbolic thing, to be “an artist.” After Duchamp, I realized that being an artist is more about a lifestyle and attitude than producing some product.
AI WEIWEI -
My definition of art has always been the same. It is about freedom of expression, a new way of communication. It is never about exhibiting in museums or about hanging it on the wall. Art should live in the heart of the people.
AI WEIWEI -
There’s no such thing as “fixed” culture. China is also becoming more global. Its problems are becoming international problems, becoming German problems, becoming American problems.
AI WEIWEI -
I have to find a place for my own. I have to search for my own happiness.
AI WEIWEI -
Growing up, my family was an enemy of the state. I have experienced more disappointment than joy, much more sad stories or desperate conditions.
AI WEIWEI -
I think of art as coming from daily life, daily experience. I think it’s very important not to have it become work for some kind of elite circle.
AI WEIWEI -
Through my work and ways of expression, I strive to engage in dialogue with the society that I am living in.
AI WEIWEI -
Destroy or build. Crazy or noncrazy. I’m not nostalgic about the old city. I don’t enjoy it that much.
AI WEIWEI -
Without freedom of speech, there is no modern world, just a barbaric one.
AI WEIWEI -
We should use this public sphere and redefine – beyond China’s borders – what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen’s privacy begins.
AI WEIWEI -
They very often just try to cope with their own election, their own popularity, solving the problem or selling the ideas to meet their own voters. By doing that, it creates a great imbalance in terms of making deals or treaty or all those things.
AI WEIWEI -
I think by shattering it we can create a new form, a new way to look at what is valuable – how we decide what is valuable.
AI WEIWEI -
In this kind of dictatorship, in this kind of totalitarian society, it is easy to make deals that you cannot make in a democratic society.
AI WEIWEI -
I also doubt a man can give really clear reasons for anything.
AI WEIWEI
![Ai Weiwei Quote - I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/grey-i-spent-a-lot-of-time-standing-on-street.jpg)
![Ai Weiwei Quote - I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/blue-i-spent-a-lot-of-time-standing-on-street.jpg)
![Ai Weiwei Quote - I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/red-i-spent-a-lot-of-time-standing-on-street.jpg)
![Ai Weiwei Quote - I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/brown-i-spent-a-lot-of-time-standing-on-street.jpg)
![Ai Weiwei Quote - I spent a lot of time standing on street corners [of New York City] talking to local residents. I spent time in bookstores and galleries. But most of the time, I really did not have much to do.](https://minimalistquotes.com/images/white-i-spent-a-lot-of-time-standing-on-street.jpg)

